Deputies from the St. Mary’s County Sheriff’s Office fired their weapons at a 34-year-old woman who pointed a handgun at them during a confrontation in a hospital parking lot on Thursday evening, October 23, 2025. The incident followed a welfare check prompted by concerns over the woman’s well-being and her departure from a residence armed with a gun. The woman, who exited a vehicle and fled before the shooting, was transported by MedStar Aviation to a regional hospital and remains in stable condition as of Friday morning.
The sequence began at 7:52 p.m., when deputies responded to a residence in the 46000 block of Valley Drive in Lexington Park for a welfare check. A male roommate reported that his female housemate had left the home carrying a firearm, raising immediate safety concerns. Multiple deputies initiated a search of the surrounding area, a residential and commercial zone near the Patuxent River Naval Air Station that includes shopping centers and medical facilities.
By 9:11 p.m., deputies located the woman inside a parked vehicle at the MedStar Health Urgent Care facility at 45870 East Run Drive, a 3,300-square-foot center that opened in July 2025 to serve the Great Mills community with eight exam rooms and on-site imaging. Initial attempts to communicate lasted several minutes, but the woman exited the car and ran across the parking lot, prompting a pursuit. At 9:19 p.m., deputies confronted her again in the lot, where she raised the gun toward them. Two deputies then discharged their service firearms, striking her at least once.
Deputies provided immediate first aid, including compression and monitoring, until emergency medical services arrived. MedStar Aviation airlifted the woman to a trauma center for evaluation and surgery. No deputies or bystanders reported injuries. Investigators later recovered a semiautomatic handgun from the scene, confirming the woman’s possession of the weapon.
Maryland law requires notification to the Independent Investigations Division of the Office of the Attorney General for any police-involved shooting. The division responded to assess the situation, including the woman’s non-life-threatening injuries, and declined to take over the probe, leaving it with local authorities. The IID, created in 2021 under police reform legislation, typically handles fatal or near-fatal cases with full investigative and prosecutorial authority since October 2023. In non-fatal incidents like this one, where the subject stabilizes quickly, the division often defers to agency-led reviews to avoid resource overlap.
The two involved deputies have been placed on paid administrative leave, standard under Sheriff’s Office protocol for officer-involved shootings. This allows time for a parallel administrative review by the Office of Professional Responsibility and a criminal investigation by the Criminal Investigations Division. Both probes will examine body camera footage, witness statements and ballistic evidence to determine compliance with department guidelines.
Welfare checks, or “wellness checks,” form the basis of many such encounters in Maryland. Under Senate Bill 190, enacted in 2024, law enforcement agencies must conduct an in-person visit upon receiving a request to verify an individual’s well-being, documenting the outcome and notifying the requester. In St. Mary’s County, deputies follow a structured approach: assessing immediate risks, attempting contact via phone or knock, and escalating to searches if responses suggest harm. This case highlights the protocol’s emphasis on rapid response in high-risk scenarios, particularly when firearms are involved.
The Sheriff’s Office use-of-force policy, outlined in directive 300, mandates that deputies apply only reasonable, necessary and proportional force based on the totality of circumstances. Deadly force, including firearm discharge, is authorized solely to counter an imminent threat of death or serious injury to officers or others. Factors include the subject’s actions, weapon proximity and alternatives like de-escalation tactics such as verbal commands or tactical repositioning. Deputies must issue warnings when feasible and cease force once the threat subsides. All incidents require immediate supervisor notification, a detailed Blue Team report by shift’s end and medical aid for any injured parties. Annual analyses by the Office of Professional Responsibility track trends to refine training, which includes scenario-based drills on less-lethal options and interactions with vulnerable individuals.
***This marks the second such event in St. Mary’s County within the past year, following a July 2025 non-fatal shooting in California. Those cases underscore ongoing training emphases on mental health crises, which factor into about 20 percent of welfare checks statewide. The current investigation remains active, with detectives seeking additional witnesses. Contact Detective David Lawrence at 301-475-4200, extension 8130, or David.Lawrence@stmaryscountymd.gov. Updates will follow as evidence analysis concludes.
** Corrected to say “Non-Fatal”